Life At 8239 Sunny Cove Lane Day!

The house is full of gray. Gray air, gray faces, gray shirts. Your little sister is dead.

Your mom's hands are the color of the end of the day. They're cold and her arms are all bone. It's better she not hold you for a few months.

Your friends, Derek and Lee, they're going to be knocking on the door any minute now. There's an ambulance in the driveway, but Derek and Lee are only six years old and an ambulance will not tip them off to make like the rest of the neighbors and stand rubbernecking from the edge of their lawns. Derek and Lee will just go ahead and knock on the door to find out why there's an ambulance in the driveway and whether you're still going to come outside to play. You're six years old too, as it happens.

Your Dad and your older sister are the ones in the living room (the couch used to be brown but it's gray) sitting on the couch with the policeman. Your dad is explaining to the policeman in the gray uniform why the wrong pills made your little sister stopped breathing. Your big sister isn't crying.

There's a knock on the door. That'll be Derek and Lee. They're going to ask your Mom whether your little sister is really dead and your Mom's not going to answer. She's just going to shut the door, making a point not to slam it.

Happy Life At 8239 Sunny Cove Lane Day!